1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to computer systems in general, and in particular to a method for shortening the boot time of a computer system.
2. Description of Related Art
After a computer has been switched on, the computer starts a boot process (also known as bootstrap) to load a series of boot files from a boot disk into a main memory. The loaded boot files enable a user to run various application programs for operation. The boot process should be completed in a relatively short time because the size of the boot files is relatively small. However, after the computer has been used for many years, during which the user might have installed various programs therein, these programs were incorporated into the boot files and auto-run without the knowledge of the user. As a result, the time to complete the boot process is lengthened.
One prior art solution for reducing computer boot time is by defining a device, a driver and an application to be activated in a computer so as to correspond to an item of service selected, and when any item of service is selected, only the device, the driver and the application in the computer corresponding to the selected item of service are activated in order to implement simple booting. Another prior art solution provides multiple boot modes, and an appropriate one of the boot modes is selected to boot a computer in order to minimize the time required for booting.
When booting a computer, a user wants to execute a specific operation, such as reading emails, browsing websites, preparing documents, etc., as soon as possible. However, not only in a computer used for a long time but also even in a computer immediately after starting to use, boot files are not always limited to the minimum range required to provide an operation environment the user needs.
FIG. 10 illustrates a typical state of loading a boot file in a computer. During booting, an operating system (OS), such as Windows® OS, is configured to automatically load modules such as kernel, Service 1, Service 2, and Subsystem 1 in a predetermined order. Then, Explorer of the OS automatically loads Application 1 registered in startup or in a registry. The modules of the OS and Explorer serve as a parent process to create a process of a module to be loaded.
When Application 1 is run, Service 1 and Service 2 are called for running. When the boot up process has been completed, the user clicks an icon to run Application 2 through Explorer. Along with the running of Application 2, Subsystem 1 and Subsystem 2 are called for miming. Subsystem 1 is not used by any module before it is shutdown. Assume that a user boots the computer in order to use Application 2 for document preparation, to which the user conducted an operation for running. On the other hand, Services 1, 2 and Application 1 have nothing to do with the running of Application 2 and Subsystem 1 simply may run during the running of Application 2, and therefore they may be deleted from the boot file. As the amount of the boot file is reduced, the boot time will be shortened. However, if a part of the boot file configured by the computer is deleted without discretion, the computer may stop or the operation of the computer may become unstable. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a method for shortening the boot time of a computer system without interfering other computer operations.